Friday, October 28, 2005

I can hear the faint sound of war drums once again, which makes this article worth the read.
Source: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=80820U.N. DOUBLE-STANDARD ON SYRIA, HARIRI & JENIN MASSACRE *PIC*Posted By: ChristopherBollyn
Date: Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 4:43 a.m.
The U.N. investigation of the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the strongly-worded resolutions that seek to punish Syria for its alleged role in his murder reveal the glaring double-standard the Bush administration and the United Nations employ to protect Israel and defend it from criticism or international sanctions.
The U.N. report produced by Detlev Mehlis contains a great deal of speculation and allegations from un-named witnesses but provides no solid evidence that Syria had anything to do with the murder of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
The Mehlis report says: "Until the investigation is completed, all new leads and evidence are fully analyzed, and an independent and impartial prosecution mechanism is set up, one cannot know the complete story of what happened, how it happened and who is responsible for the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the murder of 22 other innocent people. Therefore, the presumption of innocence stands."
The U.N. report, which only began 4 months after the murder and then took 4 months, concludes with these words: "The Commission is of course of the view that all people, including those charged with serious crimes should be considered innocent until proven guilty following a fair trial."
Are the U.S. and the UN willing to consider the Syrian officials innocent until proven guilty in a fair trial?
It does not look like the global oligarchs take these words seriously but are rather seeking to use the conjecture and speculation contained in the inconclusive Mehlis report to try to punish Syria and launch a new war of aggression on a small Middle Eastern state.
Whose interest is being served by this aggressive diplomacy and sabre rattling? Israel is the only clear beneficiary.
The 60-page Mehlis report did not even consider the possibility that the Hariri assassination was a "targeted killing" carried out by a precision-guided missile, which is what the evidence at the crime scene strongly indicates.
This is the very method perfected and long-used by Israel to kill its enemies on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, only a few miles to the south of Beirut. The Israelis even killed Sheikh Yassin of Hamas with a precision-guided missile while he was being pushed in his wheel chair in Gaza!
Certainly the satellite images and air traffic data from the Beirut area would provide evidence the Mehlis commission should have looked at - but it didn't. It apparently didn't even ask for it.
"Although resolution 1595 called on all States to provide the Commission with any relevant information pertaining to the Hariri case, it is to be regretted that no Member State relayed useable information to the Commission," the report said.
"Personnel from Military Intelligence (mainly specialists in the field of explosives) visited the crime scene and conducted their part of the examination. They confirmed that the type of explosives used were TNT and the estimated amount to be some 300 kilograms," it said.
A Swiss forensic group, however, could not even determine if the Hariri explosion had occurred above or below ground:
"After interpretation and analysis of the dispersion of fragments, we can’t give clear evidence whether there was an explosion above or under ground," the Swiss team concluded. "Our analysis and research concerning the shape and form of the crater also gives no clear evidence whether there was an explosion above or under ground."
What? A Swiss government team can't even determine how the crater was formed?
"On the other hand, the form and shape of the crater gives some information about the possible amount of the charge (above or under ground)," they said. "As mentioned in our report it is expected that an amount of about 1000 kg above ground will create a crater like the one on the scene."
This is pure nonsense. Russian data on surface blasts indicate that an explosive charge of at least 5 to 10 tons of TNT would be necessary to create a crater the size of that found in the road where Hariri's convoy was hit - no less than 5 tons of TNT!
But there is solid evidence that it was not a car bomb with 5 to 10 tons of TNT that killed Hariri.
First, there is the photograph of the crater. It shows that the detonation occurred below the street level and blew the sand and pavement up and out of the crater. The pipe that is seen thrust upwards from the crater suggests that the detonation occurred below the pipe, well beneath the road - not above it.
Massive surface explosions tend to indent or depress the surface - not excavate the underlying sand and soil to a depth of 10 feet. Such craters are caused by bombs that do not detonate on impact but have delayed fusing that allows the bomb to penetrate the media for a few milliseconds before detonating.
Secondly, there is a vehicle that is clearly seen immediately behind the crater, virtually at its edge. If the blast had been a surface blast of the strength required to excavate the huge crater, it would have blown that car far away from the crater. That car would not be standing there. No way.
The fact that the car is still standing at the edge of the crater indicates that the thrust of the explosion was upwards, as I said earlier, not sideways. This car was apparently only hit by a glancing blow from the explosion - not by its full force.
And lastly, there is the plume of smoke that rose from the explosion. The color of the plume is first a light sand color, which indicates that the explosion occurred in the sand below the street of the corniche of Beirut.
See: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=65370
The Mehlis report does not deal with any of this evidence and fails to even consider that Hariri may have been killed by an air-launched missile, a theory which I have written about since the assassination occured on February 14, 2005.
See: http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?noframes;read=65258
Compare the tough position taken by the Bush administration and the U.N. against Syria with their meek response to Israel's refusal to cooperate with a similar U.N. investigation of the Israeli army massacre in the Jenin refugee camp in occupied Palestine. An untold number of innocent Palestinians were killed and bulldozed in their homes by the Israeli Defense Forces in April 2002.
At the end of April 2002, the Israeli government simply refused to cooperate with a UN fact-finding mission charged with visiting the devastated Palestinian refugee camp of Jenin, and warned it would try to block any visit by the team.
What did the UN and US do when Ariel Sharon refused to cooperate with the "international community?"
Did they call for sanctions, freezing assets, and preventing international flights from Israel? Did they discuss Israel's lack of cooperation in the Security Council?
No. The UN team, which had assembled in Geneva, cancelled its scheduled flight departure, and went home. They wrote their report on the massacre of Jenin from the safety of their offices in Switzerland and New York.
See: http://www.un.org/peace/jenin/
Photo: Note the upthrust pipe and car standing beside the crater. This evidence strongly suggests that a precision-guided missile hit the Hariri convoy and detonated below the street.

Our State Department Web site for the 2007 Diversity Visa Program (DV-2007) is now open. The application submission period for DV-2007 is from 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on October 5, 2005 to 12:00PM EST (GMT -5) on December 4, 2005. The application form will only be available for submission during this period and this period only. Applications will not be accepted through the U.S. Postal Service.

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Please read the DV-2007 Application Instructions carefully. Applicants may be disqualified for not completing the application form correctly or by submitting more than one application. Use the link below to view the instructions.

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Thursday, October 27, 2005

USER VOTING AND DRAWING
Here are the nominees that made it into the BOBs' final round. You have until Nov. 20 to study and vote for the blogs and podcasts you think are best. For your vote to be counted you'll need to vote in at least one Best Journalistic Weblog language and all four international categories.
TheBOBs jury will decide which blogs win the Jury Award honors independently of the audience prize. All the Deutsche Welle's 2005 Best of the Blogs winners will be announced on Nov. 21.
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE BLOG HERE.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNNCondi Rice and Syrian Regime ChangeCould Somebody Recommend a President?
By Paul Craig Roberts
10/25/05 "ICH " -- -- Someone should tell Condi Rice that the gig is up. With the Bush administration dissolving in illegalities committed by key officials in their attempts to protect the lies that they used to justify the US invasion of Iraq, the secretary of state is trying to ramp up war against Syria.
Grasping a UN report that uses unreliable witnesses to implicate Syria in the assassination of a former Lebanese government official, Condi Rice told the BBC on October 23 that Syria's crime cannot be "left lying on the table. This really has to be dealt with."
This is amazing for many reasons. Here is the person in charge of US diplomacy acting as if she is the secretary of war unsheathing military force. Whoever heard of an American diplomat wanting to start a war because a former Middle Eastern government official was assassinated?
The UN investigator, Detlev Mehlis, has no more idea who assassinated the former official than the US knows who is responsible for assassinating the many Iraqi officials under its protection. After more than two and one-half years of war in Iraq, the US still doesn't know exactly who the enemy is that it is fighting. Yet Mehlis blames Syria for an assassination on the strength of an informer described by the German news magazine, Der Spiegal, as a convicted felon and swindler.
On the basis of the word of a convicted felon and swindler, Condi Rice wants a high level UN Security Council meeting to condemn Syria so the Bush administration can bring about "regime change" in Syria.
With the US department of state doing everything it can to demonize and destabilize Syria, Condi Rice's mouthpiece, Adam Ereli, declared that Syria must end attempts to destabilize its neighbors. This is the type of propaganda we were fed about Iraq. Syria is not destabilizing any country. It is all Syria can do to maintain its own stability. The US is the great Middle Eastern destabilizer.
Isn't the secretary of state aware that the government of which she is a part is in dire difficulties because it went to war based on highly unreliable "intelligence" supplied by highly unreliable people?
Does the secretary of state read the CIA reports? Doesn't she know that the US has created extraordinary instability in Iraq? A country that formerly had no terrorists now serves as a training ground for al Qaeda, according to the CIA.
Is this the time to repeat the Iraq blunder in Syria?
The American people should be terrified by the warmongering ideologues that President Bush has put in charge of his government. The greatest danger that the US faces are the fools in the Bush administration.
Why is Syria being demonized? Syrian troops were part of the US coalition organized by President George Herbert Walker Bush that liberated Kuwait in 1991 from Saddam Hussein. The current head of government in Syria is a mild mannered ophthalmologist who inherited the post five years ago when his older brother was killed in a car crash.
Syria has done nothing to the US and poses no threat to the US. The Syrian government is concerned about Syria becoming unhinged by schisms like the Sunni-Shi'ite schism set loose in Iraq by the incompetent Bush administration.
Why does Condi Rice think the Bush administration has the right to decide who heads the Syrian government? According to news reports, the Bush administration has asked the Israeli and Italian governments to nominate a replacement for the current president of Syria.
A country incapable of choosing a better president than George W. Bush has no business choosing a president for any other country. In place of aggressive interference in the internal affairs of other countries, the US needs to find a competent president for itself.
Maybe we should ask the Italians who they would recommend.
Paul Craig Roberts has held a number of academic appointments and has contributed to numerous scholarly publications. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. His graduate economics education was at the University of Virginia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Oxford University. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Salam,
I need help!
Well, as you all know I got palforce.com and I'm trying to setup worpress on it but I didnt like one single theme, I want to know how can I mix more than one theme together.
and I liked the random-image theme but when I tried to insert my own pics it didnt work.
So any geeksters out there willing to help out?
Thanks
Peace

Saturday, October 22, 2005

So, I got my own domain ( http://www.palforce.com)
But now I dont know what to do next . lol
I mean what Blog software should I use and where can I get a better tamplate and how can I tweak my tamplate? so many questions so little answers :-(
Peace

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Thought you would be interested—this is pretty disturbing.
I don't know if you saw the Reuters article filed this afternoon documenting the flaws and inadequacies in the US military investigations of 27 suspected and confirmed deaths in US custody overseas. This was based on a report by the lawyers at Human Rights First. The details are staggering – evidence, i.e., a bag of body parts, left on an airport tarmac that exploded from the heat and investigations so vague that the date of death falls within a 5-month span.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticleSearch.aspx?storyID=250957+19-Oct-2005+RTRS&srch=dunham
There are primary source documents that reveal the blatant inadequacy of the government’s response to these deaths in U.S. custody: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/dic/dic_memos.htm.
This is of critical relevance given the White House’s and House of Representatives' attempts to kill or water down the McCain Anti-Torture Amendment (in negotiations next week).
Please consider letting your readers know of this important and troubling information.
Thanks,
Amelia Field
EndTortureNow.org
Human Rights First Media Release www.humanrightsfirst.org
Contact: Daedre Levine, (212) 845-5260, levined@humanrightsfirst.org
Twenty-Seven Detainee Homicides in U.S. Custody
Lax Policies and Inadequate Investigations Create
Culture of Impunity, Human Rights First Research Shows
NEW YORK, NY – More than 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody since 2002, Human Rights First research in a soon to be released report indicates, including 27 cases the Army has to date identified as suspected or confirmed homicides, and at least seven cases in which detainees were tortured to death. The findings come as chairmen and ranking members of a House/Senate Conference Committee are scheduled to meet next week to determine whether to include in a defense appropriations bill an amendment setting clear rules for U.S. interrogation policy to prohibit abusive treatment (see list of conference committee members at
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/etn/misc/conf_com.htm.)
New analysis by Human Rights First of dozens of deaths in U.S. custody reveals a pattern of grossly inadequate and flawed investigations – compromising the United States’ ability to hold individual wrongdoers accountable. The investigations have been flawed in various ways. (Case examples involving each of these flaws given at the end of this document; references available on request):
Criminal investigators have failed to interview key witnesses, collect useable evidence, or maintain evidence that could be used for any subsequent prosecution;
Record keeping has been grossly inadequate, further undermining chances for prosecution;
Overlapping criminal and administrative investigations instigated by the military have interfered with each other, and compromised chances for accountability;
Commanders have repeatedly failed to report deaths of detainees in the custody of their command, reported the deaths only after a period of days and sometimes weeks, launched serious investigations only after a case became publicly known, or actively interfered in efforts to pursue investigations.
Of the investigative failures, Brigadier General David R. Irvine, U.S. Army (Ret.) commented: “There is an old Army aphorism: the unit does what the commander checks. If any commander actually cared that Geneva was followed, you can be sure that it would have been followed -- and that goes right up the chain of command.” He continued: “If rigorous adherence to humane treatment had been deemed important, someone wearing stars would have required a thorough, impartial investigation of every death of a detainee.”
Deborah Pearlstein, U.S. Law and Security Program Director at Human Rights First, agreed: “These flawed inquiries are part of the larger effects of sending troops into the field with unlawful guidance on interrogations and detention or no guidance at all, and without knowledge of the effects of allowing incidents of wrongdoing to pass with relative impunity. Those engaged on the front lines every day in the fight against terror need and deserve a clearer message from command about what American leadership really means.”
On October 5, 2005, the Senate passed by a 90-9 vote an amendment, sponsored by Senator John McCain and other senior Republicans, that would make the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogations binding policy for all those in military custody. The measure would also reinforce the ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, which the Administration now asserts does not apply to U.S. intelligence agencies or to U.S. actions abroad. The House version of the massive military spending bill does not contain the McCain provision. House and Senate negotiators meet this week to reconcile differences between the two versions of the bill.
Among examples of the investigative failures highlighted above:
Criminal investigators failed to interview key witnesses, collect useable evidence, or maintain evidence that could be used for any subsequent prosecution.
Abu Malik Kenami (Abdureda Lafta Abdul Kareem), a 43-year-old Iraqi man, died on December 9, 2003, in an American detention facility in Mosul, Iraq. He had been captured four days earlier, and according to the soldiers who interrogated him upon his arrival, he seemed to be in good health and did not suffer from any pre-existing medical conditions. On the night of December 8, soldiers punished Kenami for talking by forcing him to perform “up and downs” – an exercise in which he was required to continually stand then sit, used as a disciplinary tool by U.S. forces in Iraq – several times for periods of up to twenty minutes. Kenami had been subjected repeatedly to “up and downs” during his detention. Soldiers then flexicuffed his hands behind his back, and covered his head with a sandbag – a hood. Kenami was then ordered to lie down between detainees in his overcrowded cell (built for 30 prisoners, at that time it housed 66). When a guard attempted to rouse the prisoners the next morning, Kenami, still bound and hooded, was dead.
The Army’s initial criminal investigations into Kenami’s death could not determine the cause of death without an autopsy. It was only months later, after the revelations from Abu Ghraib, that the Army reopened many cases of deaths in custody to review, that it became clear how troubling the original criminal investigation had been. In the Army’s own words from the review, released through FOIA requests, “it was weak in Thoroughness and Timeliness.” In addition to the lack of autopsy, the review determined that important interviews were not conducted of the interrogators, medic, or detainees present at the scene of the death, and that key details were omitted from the report. According to the Army’s review, the original investigation file “[did] not mention the presence, or lack of, signs of a struggle, or of blood or body fluids,” “the crime scene sketch… [did] not document where guard personnel found the deceased,” and “records of medical treatment of the deceased were not collected and reviewed.” Of note, the Army’s original administrative investigation had recommended that an Iraqi physician be brought in to treat the detainees, noting that among other benefits, “it would [also] decrease the perception of our involvement or cover-up in events like these.” The cause of Kenami’s death remains officially undetermined. No punitive or disciplinary action has been taken.
Record keeping was grossly inadequate, often making accountability impossible.
All that is known about Hadi Abdul Hussain Hasson al-Zubaidy (Hasson) is his name, his identification number and the fact that he died in Iraq, at Camp Bucca, some time between April and September 2003. Army investigators became aware of his death approximately one year after it happened, and only after the Army reviewed its detainee records following the Abu Ghraib scandal. Despite subsequent attempts to determine what happened to Hasson – including when and how he died – investigators were only able to determine that Hasson had been treated on board a U.S. Navy hospital ship. Human Rights First submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Defense for any Naval records relating to Hasson’s treatment – one of the sources investigators do not appear to have tapped; that request remains pending.
Investigators have now closed the Hasson case without being able to determine whether his death was due to natural causes or homicide. The investigators’ report notes that inadequate record-keeping made it impossible for them to learn anything more. A U.S. Mortuary Affairs officer told an investigator that “the documentation on deceased Detainees was very limited . . . the majority of the time prior to earlier this year [2004], when the Mortuary received the remains of a deceased Detainee they would only know that the deceased was a detainee, and would not have any other info on the remains, so they would have a list of the remains as unknown John Doe.”
Overlapping criminal and administrative investigations instigated by the military interfered with each other, compromising chances for accountability.
Obeed Hethere Radad was shot to death on September 11, 2003 in his detention cell in an American forward operating base in Tikrit, Iraq. Radad’s death was not reported for four days. An internal Army review (again, prompted by renewed scrutiny following the revelations of Abu Ghraib) of the resulting criminal and administrative investigations found that the delay prevented the recovery of evidence that would have been needed in any subsequent prosecution: neither the bullet nor the gun was recovered, and no autopsy was conducted. Army Regulations contain scores of pages of detailed procedures on the proper handling and storage of physical evidence.
Prior to the conclusion of the criminal investigation, the soldier accused in the shooting of Radad, Specialist Juba Martino-Poole, sought a military discharge in lieu of a court-martial for manslaughter. Without waiting for criminal investigative agents to conclude their investigation and forward their findings, the suspected soldier’s commander approved the request for discharge. A little more than a week later, criminal investigators found probable cause to charge the soldier who shot Radad with murder. Post-Abu Ghraib reviewers were led to decide against reopening the investigation; Martino-Poole had already been discharged. Martino-Poole later accused his commanders of wanting to avoid disclosure of the lax security practices at the base – practices that would likely have come to light in a court-martial proceeding.
Commanders repeatedly failed to report deaths of detainees in the custody of their command, reported the deaths only after a period of days and sometimes weeks, launched serious investigations only after a case became publicly known, or actively interfered in efforts to pursue investigations.
In one of the more well-known cases, Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, a 65-year-old chemical scientist, was detained at the Camp Cropper high value detainee facility in April 2003; his family was allowed to visit him once. Within a few weeks of their visit in January 2004, al-Izmerly was dead. U.S. forces retained al-Izmerly’s body for 17 days after his death, and did not inform Army criminal investigators that al-Izmerly had died in U.S. custody until after his body was released. The family only learned of his death after U.S. forces delivered al-Izmerly’s body to an Iraqi hospital, accompanied by a death certificate stating that al-Izmerly had died of a “sudden brainstem compression,” without any explanation of its cause. The family asked the director of Baghdad hospital’s forensic department to autopsy Al-Izmerly’s body; according to press reports, the autopsy found that Izmerly died from a “sudden hit to the back of his head” and that the cause of the death was blunt trauma. The forensic department director told the press that al-Izmerly “died from a massive blow to the head. We don’t disagree with the coalition’s report, but it doesn’t explain how he got his injuries in the first place.”
The initial, inconclusive investigation into the case was closed, and only appears to have been reopened after press accounts of al-Izmerly’s death. The Army Criminal Investigation Command listing for al-Izmerly’s death is “undetermined cause,” because the body was released and no U.S. autopsy was performed. The family reportedly filed a wrongful death claim for $10,000, but the Army dismissed it, saying the family had presented no evidence of wrongdoing by U.S. personnel. The re-opened investigation into al-Izmerly’s death remains pending; to date, no charges are reported to have been brought.
- 30 -
Human Rights First is a leading human rights advocacy organization based in New York City and Washington, DC. Since 1978, we have worked in the U.S. and abroad to create a secure and humane world –advancing justice, human dignity, and respect for the rule of law. All of our activities are supported by private contributions. We accept no government funds. Visit our web site: www.humanrightsfirst.org
Human Rights First
333 Seventh Ave., 13th Floor, New York, NY 10001
Tel: (212) 845-5200 Fax: (212) 845-5299
www.humanrightsfirst.org

Salam,
Here are the 2 Tips I learned today the hard way.
Tip #1 : Never go grocery shopping while you are fasting.
Tip #2 : When renting a movie, usually the number of copies of that movie determine how good it is, if there is only one copy and the movie cover looks real good, it ain't good.
Now I can go to sleep that I have this off my chest.
Peace

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

http://wip.warnerbros.com/paradisenow/
"PARADISE NOW" is the story of two young Palestinian men as they embark upon what may be the last 48 hours of their lives. On a typical day in the West Bank city of Nablus, where daily life grinds on amidst crushing poverty and the occasional rocket blast, we meet two childhood best friends, Saïd (Kais Nashef) and Khaled (Ali Suliman), who pass time drinking tea, smoking a hookah, and working dead-end menial jobs as auto mechanics.
Saïd's day takes a turn for the better when a beautiful young woman named Suha (Lubna Azabal) brings her car in for repairs. From their spirited interaction, it is apparent that there is a budding romance growing between them.
Saïd is approached by middle-aged Jamal (Amer Hlehel), a point man for an unnamed Palestinian organization, who informs Saïd that he and Khaled have been chosen to carry out a strike in Tel Aviv. They have been chosen for this mission as a team, because each had expressed a wish that if either is to die a martyr, the other would want to die alongside his best friend.
Saïd and Khaled have been preparing for this moment for most of their lives. They spend a last night at home -- although they must keep their impending mission secret even from their families. During the night Saïd sneaks off to see Suha one last time. Suha's moderate views, having been educated in Europe, and Saïd's burgeoning conflicted conscience cause him to stop short of explaining why he has come to say good-bye.
The following day, Saïd and Khaled are lead to a hole in the fence that surrounds Nablus, where they are to meet a driver who will take them to Tel Aviv. But here the plan goes wrong, and Saïd and Khaled are separated.
"PARADISE NOW" follows two Palestinian childhood friends who have been recruited for a strike on Tel Aviv and focuses on their last days together. When they are intercepted at the Israeli border and separated from their handlers, a young woman who discovers their plan causes them to reconsider their actions.

Winner of multiple prizes at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival, and invited to the 2005 Telluride Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, the film was written by Hany Abu-Assad ("Ford Transit," "Rana's Wedding") & Bero Beyer and directed by Abu-Assad, and stars Kais Nashef, Ali Suliman, Lubna Azabal.
"PARADISE NOW" is a production of Augustus Film with Lama Films, Razor Film, Lumen Films, Arte France Cinema, Hazazah Film and produced with the support of Nederlands Fonds Voor De Film, Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Eurimages, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, I2I Preparatory Action of the European Community and World Cinema Fund.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Q&A with director Hany Abu-Assad
Where did the idea for the film come from?
Every day in the newspapers we hear of these attacks. It is such an extreme act that I began to think, like everyone, how could someone do that - what could drive them to it? I realized that we never hear the whole story. How could they justify this? Not only to their families but also to themselves. However you may feel, there is a reason.
How did you research the subject?
I studied the interrogation transcripts of suicide bombers who had failed; I read Israeli official reports; I spoke to people who personally knew bombers who died -- the friends and families and mothers. What became clear was that none of the stories were the same.
There are also a good number of producing entities involved - could you give a rough chronology of when they came on board?
Bero Beyer is the Dutch producer, of course from the beginning. The first co-producer on board was Lama Production's Amir Harel from Tel Aviv who produced "Walk on Water, " "Yossi and Jagger." "Ford Transit" was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2003, and it caught the eye of German producer Roman Paul from the Berlin-based Razor Film. Then the Paris-based Celluloid Dreams and Lumen Films came on board. During the Berlin Film Festival of 2003, we all met: a Palestinian director and a Dutch, two Germans, an Israeli and a French Producer.
Exactly two years later, the film played at Berlin (2005).
How was your crew assembled? How would you describe the group?
The crew consisted of people from Palestine, The Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Israel and UK. We had Palestinian local crew and cast of about 50 people, a German crew of about 14 people, 4 French people, including of course the cameraman Antoine Heberlé, 3 Dutch people, the actress who plays Suha, Lubna Azabal, is a Belgian citizen, a British crewmember, and for the shoot in Tel Aviv, we hired about 10 additional Israeli crewmembers.
How did you cast the three leads? In selecting them, how did these actors embody what you were looking for?
We had many casting sessions. The first session was more like a job interview with about 200 actors. I tried to figure out their personality and if they had charisma or presence. The actors I found close to the characters, I invited back to work with some scenes. The ones that were able to add an extra layer to the characters, were the actors I chose. To finalize my decision, I had them acting together to see if they fit together on screen.
You shot in Nablus, Nazareth and Tel Aviv. How many days in each?
We had 3 months of pre-production in Nablus, during which the local cast and crew had to be found and sets and locations had to be found and/or built. Also the main actors were brought in early to work as actual mechanics in Nablus in preparation. We shot in Nablus for 25 days, then had to move. In Nazareth we shot another 15 days - mostly interiors and car scenes, but also The New Headquarter where Khaled is brought with Abu-Karem, and where they are all brought after the cemetery; Said and Suha in the car, talking about his father; the nighttime cemetery shot; Said in the restroom wiping off the sweat from under the belt; Said in the cab talking about water filters; the Othman checkpoint with many extras; and the olive grove.
Some sets had to be built to match with the original sets in Nablus, such as the exterior of Said's house (the original was in an actual refugee camp) and the exterior of Khaled's house (where Said comes asking for Khaled). Our production designer Olivier Meidinger did a tremendous job and did it quickly, to build those on the spot. We finished with 2 1/2 days shooting in Tel Aviv.
Did you and your crew have a sort of contingency plan in place for safety while shooting? What could you do to put people at ease with the circumstances under which they would be shooting?
We didn't have a watertight plan, because such a thing is impossible in Nablus, but we had a security department. They advised us when and where to shoot. We were lucky to have some very good and courageous people working with us, who made sure we knew as much as was possible and could react as best as possible. From the moment it got dicey, all the cast and crew were briefed as much as possible. They all had the feeling they were dealing with a film worth being brave for.
It was kind of insane to shoot a film there. Every day we had some sort of trouble. Both the Israelis and Palestinians were used to news crews of a few people. But we didn't have a small crew that could shoot film and run. There were 70 people and 30 vehicles, making it impossible to run and hide.
Some Palestinians thought we were making a film against the Palestinians. And some Palestinians supported the film because they thought we were fighting for freedom and democracy. One group though, thought the film was not presenting the suicide bombers in a good light and came to us with guns and asked us to stop.
Not one day went by without our having to stop filming. We would stop and wait until the firing stopped and then start again.
Describe the difficulties involved in shooting in Nablus.
To get into the area you have to get friendly with the Israeli army, to survive inside the area you have to work with the Palestinians. Immediately, it is a difficult task. To many Palestinians, we were instantly suspicious; how did we get in with so many people and so much material? Everybody wanted to read our script and many, not understanding what we were trying to do, drew different conclusions.
In Nablus, the Israeli Army invades the city almost everyday to arrest what they call the 'Wanted' Palestinians. At day-break the invasion starts with tanks rolling in, gunshots and rocket attacks and in the evening there is a curfew. We had to report our whereabouts to these armed Palestinian factions behind the backs of the Israeli Army, without the Israeli Army knowing we were in contact with the Palestinians, because getting in and out of Nablus was difficult enough as it was. On top of this, the rivalry between Palestinian factions meant approval from one faction and meant definite disapproval from the other. The rumor that we were doing something that was anti-suicide bombers was spreading fast, and one faction kidnapped our local location manager, Hassan Titi, and demanded that we leave Nablus.
That day there was an Israeli missile attack on a nearby car, and gunmen ordered us to leave, which was the last straw for six of our European crew members. They left and I don't blame them. They did the right thing. Life is more important than a film. We were too close to the destruction and the situation was getting worse. Most of the real danger was from the missiles. When we heard shooting, we could go somewhere else, but you don't see missiles coming. That is much more scary. For all these reason we had to stop the shooting and I had a few dilemmas to deal with: How do I get my location manager back, how can I stay friendly with the various Palestinian factions without the Israelis knowing about it and seeing me as one of them, risking a rocket attack? Where do I find six professional crew members on such short notice, whom I have to recruit by telling the reason why the others left?
I decided to contact Prime Minister Yasser Arafat, although I'd never met him. I knew for a fact that Arafat had never visited a cinema, however, he did help us obtain the release of our location manager who was returned two hours later.
But I was torn with a new dilemma. Should we stay in Nablus or should we go? If we left, we would justify the rumors that we were traitors. That would leave Hassan and the rest of our local crew who we would have to leave behind, as well as the factions that were on our side, in big trouble. If we stayed, we would have to continue working in a war zone and stand up against the rival factions. I decided to stay, it seemed the only option, but it created another dilemma; my producer Bero Beyer, wanted to leave. After a long fight I suggested the following to Bero: I would start a campaign in town to stop the rumors, without upsetting the Army. In the meantime, the local and international journalists were about to turn Hassan's kidnapping into world news. We asked them to hold, because we were afraid of what that might do. The rival faction started a counter campaign. They were handing out pamphlets saying that we were an American/Spanish conspiracy. So we were outlawed. It seemed that with every step in the right direction, we were pushed back two steps. Every plan we made to resume the shoot got torpedoed.
After three weeks at a standstill, we resumed working again. I will save you the details of the financial troubles we got ourselves into. Six new crew members were flown in and I continued, paranoid and under great stress, with my original plan: directing a movie, dealing with actors, crew and Mise en Scene.
Five days later, a land mine exploded 300 meters away from the set. We were running towards it; three young men died in the area we were shooting the night before, and the lead actress, Lubna Azabal, fainted. Though we wanted to continue filming in Nablus for authenticity and continuity, we felt we had no other choice but to leave. We decided to move the set to my birth city Nazareth and leave Nablus for good.
We took these ridiculous risks to make sure the film would be as close to reality as possible and to have an authentic look and feel. I understand why the Palestinian crew might do this, but I have wondered why the foreign crew would risk their lives.
It would have been quicker and easier to shoot digitally. Why did you make the film on 35mm?
It was a way of creating a distinction from the news footage that is on our television screens every day. While the film looks realistic, naturalistic, it is still a film and tells a story. On the one hand, the film is fiction and at the same time you want to it to ring true.
A surprising moment in the film is the shooting of the martyr videos - was there any particular inspiration for the humor and pathos in that scene?
The scene catches the heart of the film's idea by simultaneously breaking down the martyrdom-heroism as well as the monster-evil and making it human. And humans are often quite banal, but also funny and emotional. In real life there often is comedy in the most tragic moments.
I shot the scene in a real location. This was one of the film's concepts; putting actors in the real surroundings in order to create a moment of truth with the actor. When Ali Suliman stands where real martyrs also stand giving their speech, he was so nervous there was no need to act anymore. I was also nervous, because all around us, real organizers of these kind of attacks were watching. I was very afraid they would get angry about the comedy in the scene. The entire cast and crew were nervous.
By the end of Take One, where Ali makes the speech, one of the organizers stopped us. I thought: now it is over. But he just wanted to show Ali how to hold his gun correctly. There was no protest over the humor at all. Later I realized that in reality things like this happen. It wasn't irregular to them. By the way, Ali's gun was theirs. We borrowed it. When Ali held it, knowing that this gun was used daily to aim at the Israeli Army, it had quite an impact on him.
When you finished production, how did you feel?
After we finished, François Perrault-Alix, the gaffer, said to me: "So much has happened; I don't even know where to start when I get back to France. Usually I'll have a few good stories after a shoot that will last a while in the local pub, but now...the amount of stories I have to tell will last for the next three years, but I don't know where to start."
And that's how I feel. I look at my journal and realize there were so many stories happening every day and all worth telling. We were all, given all that had happened, exhausted and euphoric.
Are you anticipating that Israeli or Jewish groups might find the film sympathetic to suicide bombers?
I understand that it will be upsetting to some that I have given a human face to the suicide bombers; I am also very critical of the suicide bombers, as well.
***
The film is simply meant to open a discussion, hopefully, a meaningful discussion, about the real issues at hand. I hope that the film will succeed in stimulating thought. If you see the film, it's fairly obvious that it does not condone the taking of lives. In my experience, with the film since it screened earlier this year in Berlin, much of the talk and protest comes from the idea of the film and not necessarily the film itself.
The full weight and complexity of the situation is impossible to show on film. No one side can claim a moral stance because taking any life is not a moral action. The entire situation is outside of what we can call morality. If we didn't believe that we were making something meaningful, that could be part of a larger dialogue, we wouldn't have gambled our lives in Nablus.

Snoop, Xzibit and Dr. Dre all praise the Palestinian-American freak of beats

Thirty-two-year-old Farid Nassar was born and raised in Flint, Michigan (the region with the largest Arab community in the U.S.), to Palestinian parents who came to the U.S. after the Six Day War of 1967. The Nassar family moved to San Jose, California, when Fred was 11, after his father, who worked for General Motors, hurt his back.
Fredwreck has helped Snoop learn about the Palestinian cause. Says Fredwreck, “He calls me on tour: ‘Hey, cuz, what does this mean when muthafuckers going up to the Temple Mount, what is that shit all about, cuz, why they be tripping?’ or he’ll be like, ‘Why they building a wall around y’alls people’s shit. That’s fucked up, cuz.’ ”
When Snoop asked about suicide bombers, Fredwreck explained, “They don’t got weapons; if someone pushes you back to the wall, all you got to fight with is yourself. If muthafuckers came to Long Beach and took Long Beach, and kicked your mama from her house and said you can’t leave your house at 5, because there is a checkpoint, and when you go from Long Beach to
Compton to visit your auntie, you gotta go through 25 checkpoints, you gonna get turned away,
get your ass beat, or get shot and killed because you were considered a terrorist, you be fighting
back too, dog.”

Saturday, October 15, 2005

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1587540,00.htmlGuardian
October 8, 2005
Rachel was bulldozed to death, but her words are
a spur to action
It is disturbing to see our daughter played on stage,
but it drives home the impact she has had since her
killing in Gaza
By Cindy and Craig Corrie Saturday
When our daughter Rachel Corrie was killed by
an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza strip on March 16
2003, an immediate impulse was to get her words out to
the world. She had been working in Rafah with a
nonviolent resistance organisation, the International Solidarity
Movement, trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells.
Her emails home had had a powerful impact on our family, making us think
about the situation in the Middle East in ways we had never done before.
Without a direct connection to Israel and Palestine, we had not
understood the devastating nature of the Palestinians' situation. Coming
from the US, our allegiance and empathy had always been with the people
of Israel.
After Rachel died we realised that her words were
having a similar effect on others whose lives were
being changed, as ours have been - not just by Rachel's
death, but by the window her writing provided on the Palestinian
experience and by her call to action.
Earlier this year, when a play created entirely from
Rachel's emails and journals first opened in London, we
saw in a very immediate way the impact that Rachel's
words can have on others. Theatre can reach people in a different and
deeper place than reading a news article or listening to a speech: there
is an emotional aspect that for some people can be more long-lasting and
motivating.
Theatre humanises; all art humanises. It takes us away
from the merely logical and rational. In the Israel-
Palestine conflict there is often a very logical
calculus of death and war - and you must step out of
the constructs of that logic in order to construct a
logic for peace.
The play, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, is not just about
how Rachel died, even if that is why she is known and remembered. It
also illuminates her humanity, tracing her evolution from typical
teenage self-exploration through to her search for a political voice.
The play includes some of her writing that might be considered
uncomplimentary to us, and even to her. Far better that, though, than
being a symbol of one dimension.
It is disconcerting, but also comforting, to watch an
actor who looks much like Rachel - Megan Dodds - play
our daughter on stage. In the opening scene, when
Rachel awakens in her messy bedroom, the resemblance is
almost too much. But Megan lives Rachel's words in ways
that are sometimes familiar but also sometimes
surprising, so that we learn from her what Rachel may
have been thinking. At several points in the play,
Megan enacts receiving emails from us - real emails
that we actually sent to Rachel. We had never before
imagined our daughter's reactions to receiving our
messages until we saw them on stage.
Rachel was a real human being. Sometimes, when people
idealise her, we feel vulnerable for her. Knowing the
complete human being, would they feel the same? Through
My Name is Rachel Corrie, people can know a more
complete Rachel.
Clearly, our daughter has become a positive symbol for
people. Her story and her words seem to motivate others
to do something, not just sit and talk about the
world's situation in their living rooms and feel
unhappy. The weekend after Rachel was killed, we
discussed with old friends what we should do. We needed
to find a response. In some ways we may have been more fortunate than
other parents who have lost children, for the response in our situation
was apparent. With her efforts to educate and to build permanent
connections with Palestinians in Rafah, Rachel provided us with a path.
In an email from Rachel to her friend Todd, she tells
him 10 times over that he must come to Gaza. "Come
here!", she repeats over and over. That is what Rachel
would have wanted us to do, too: to try to carry on
what she started.
We recently spent time in the US with members of the
family who were behind the wall of the home Rachel
stood to protect. For a month we ate, played and
travelled with 15-month-old Sama. What future does she
have, living in what now amounts to a mass prison in
Gaza?
The recent disengagement may provide some relief for
Gazans at the most obvious level. But it is hard not to contrast the
media coverage afforded to the Israeli settlers' leaving, with that
given to the many Palestinian families who have lost their homes to
demolition in Gaza. What has been happening in the West Bank under cover
of the disengagement - the building of the wall and the expansion of
settlements - is also very worrying.
And when the Israeli prime minister's close aide Dov
Weisglass said that the real intent of the Gaza
disengagement was to place the peace process in
formaldehyde, we have to take him at his word. We must
keep insisting on a peace process and work towards a
viable Palestinian state that will benefit
Palestinians, Israelis and the rest of the world.
Meanwhile, we are still asking our government for a US-
led investigation into Rachel's killing. The US state department is on
record saying that the report of the Israeli military police does not
reflect an investigation that was "thorough, credible and transparent",
despite that being promised to President Bush by Ariel Sharon. In March
we initiated a lawsuit against the Israel Defence Force and the
government of Israel, to seek justice for Rachel and also information.
We still would like to know what happened on March 16 2003, and why the
international eyewitness reports differ so radically from the statements
of the soldiers involved.
Unfortunately, the Israeli parliament, counter to
international law, has passed retroactive legislation
making it impossible for most Palestinians and others
to file suit against the IDF for injury that occurred
in the occupied territories after September 2000.
In the US we have taken legal action against
Caterpillar Inc, which manufactured the D-9R bulldozer
which killed Rachel. Under existing US law,
corporations can be, and are being, held responsible
when they knowingly continue to provide goods and
services that are used in a pattern of human-rights
violations.
The month before she was killed, Rachel wrote the
following in an email to us: "I look forward to seeing
more and more people willing to resist the direction
the world is moving in, a direction where our personal experiences are
irrelevant, that we are defective, that our communities are not
important, that we are powerless, that our future is determined, and
that the highest level of humanity is expressed through what we choose
to buy at the mall." Action has already flowed from her words.
. My Name Is Rachel Corrie is at the Royal Court
Theatre in London from October 11 to 29. Box office 020
7565 5000rachelsmessage@the-corries.com Guardian Unlimited (c)
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

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